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Pratibha Devisingh Patil is the daughter of Narayan Rao Patil.[2] She was born on 19 December 1934 in the village of Nadgaon, in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, India. She was educated initially at RR Vidyalaya, Jalgaon and subsequently was awarded a Master's degree in Political Science and Economics by Mooljee Jetha College, Jalgaon (then under Pune University), and then a Bachelor of Law degree by Government Law College, Mumbai. Patil then began to practice law at the Jalgaon District Court, while also taking interest in social issues such as improving the conditions faced by Indian women.[3]

Patil had held various Cabinet portfolios during her period in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and she had also held official positions while in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. In addition, she had been for some years the president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee and also held office as Director of the National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks and Credit Societies and as a Member of the Governing Council of the National Co-operative Union of India.[2]

On 8 November 2004 she was appointed as the 24th Governor of Rajasthan[5] and she was the first woman to hold that office,[6] and, according to the BBC, was "a low-profile" incumbent.[4]

Due to the role being largely a figurehead position, the selection of candidate is often arranged by consensus among the various political parties and the candidate runs unopposed.[7] Contrary to the normal pattern of events, Patil faced a challenge in the election. The BBC described the situation as "the latest casualty of the country's increasingly partisan politics and [it] highlights what is widely seen as an acute crisis of leadership". It "degenerated into unseemly mud slinging between the ruling party and the opposition".[8] Her challenger was Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the incumbent vice-president and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran.[9] Shekhawat stood as an independent candidate and was supported by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a group led by the BJP,[9] although the Shiv Sena party, which was a part of NDA, supported her because of her Marathi origin.[10]

Patil won the election held on 19 July 2007. She garnered nearly two-thirds of the votes[11] and took office as India's first woman president on 25 July 2007.[citation needed]

Pratibha Patil's term as the President of India saw various controversies.[12] For example, during her term as president, Patil commuted the death sentences of 35 petitioners to life, a record — among them are those convicted of mass murder, kidnapping, rape and killing of children. The presidential office, however, defended this by saying that the President had granted clemency to the petitioners after due consideration and examining the advice of the Home Ministry.[13][14]

Patil was noted for having spent more money on foreign trips, and having taken a greater number of foreign trips, than any prior president.[15]

Along with her husband, she set up Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, an educational institute which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Amravati, Jalgaon and Mumbai.[17] She also set up Shram Sadhana Trust, which runs hostels for working women in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune; and an engineering college in Bambhori village in district Jalgaon named SSBT'S COET publicly named as Bambhori Engineering College.[17] She also founded a cooperative sugar factory known as Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana at Muktainagar[citation needed] and an eponymous cooperative bank, Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank, that ceased trading in February 2003.[18]